Wood ven.

[phugly]

I agree with this comment about the clips. I've found they're not much stronger than cooking foil and fail on first operation of the blind

[JoY]

The clips? They look really ugly too. A customer has asked if we can remove them. Will the blind operate without them?

[mark]

Hello All

Firstly, I’m Mark Lucas and the Product Manager responsible for Wood and Aluminium Venetians, Pleated and Woodweave. Briefly, I’ve been with the company for nearly 16 years and in the past I have been a Training Officer, a FSM (we used to be Area Managers back in the old days) and as an Operations Manager in Retail. I’ve been doing the PM job for 3 years now.

We’re into our 5th week since the re-launch of Wood Venetians and given the interest in the product on this forum and at Mellisa’s request, here’s an update on where we are with the new Wood Venetian programme.

Sales
The new blinds, and of course, the new pricing structure have been a tremendous hit, with UK Sales unit sales increasing by 75% over the previous weekly average. As I pointed out in the launch DVD (I hope you all watched it!) we were struggling a bit with price before, but there’s no doubt our blinds represent excellent value for money now.

Issues
To clear a few things up for you…..

There have been some problems with blinds not operating correctly where the cord gets caught in the cordlock preventing raise/lower from operating smoothly. This was most apparent on the larger width blinds (ones with 4 cords) and is due to the wrong gauge cord being used during manufacture. This may also cause the raise lower assembly to become loose. The problem has now been resolved at the supplier (I was in China to see this take place a few weeks ago) with new cord being used on all future shipments. Existing stock will be re-corded. Any problems with this to date will be with blinds produced before the problem was spotted.

If you have missing blanking pieces, or slat clips, please check the packaging carefully in case they have become loose in transit. I have passed your comments about this back to Production. Also, end caps are there to provide extra support for the headrail during transit and do not perform any other function. If you remember the old external caps had to be removed before you could fit them into the brackets anyway.

It would appear from some of your postings that there’s an assumption that we’re now buying from cheaper sources and that therefore quality has suffered as a result. Actually, we’re buying from the same suppliers as before. The only things we’ve changed are the species of wood (basswood is lighter, making the blinds easier to operate, more stable and more reliable) and the manufacturing process itself. Of course, there’s no doubt that you will spot differences, some will be to do with different procedures being used in the supplier’s factory, and some necessary to allow the finishing to take place in Washington, but we’re confident that they won’t make the slightest difference to the customer.

This is confirmed by the DOR report that clearly shows that Wood Venetians do not perform better or worse than any other product except in one area – missing components. This is twice as bad as the average and therefore requires investigation. Could the group help out with this?

We know that the major culprit has been valances but the DOR code is not specific to valances. So, what would be really useful is a document from those of you who would like to take part showing…
How many of the new Wood Venetians have you fitted since launch?
What’s been missing?
What’s wrong with the valances?
I’m sure you realise, but please don’t put things like “faulty”, and it’s really useful for you to put some details like order numbers & advisor numbers so we can trace them if necessary.

The final issue is the new bracket being supplied with 35mm WV’s being slightly bigger and therefore potentially causing an issue when measuring. You need to know that the offset is now 5cm on 35mm blinds only. Full details will be published in this week’s mailer.

Ok, that’s it from me. Hope this helps….

Kind regards

Mark

[hereticus]

Mark....good to see you coming on board and taking an interest in our feedback from the field.

My experience of the new Wood Venetians so far is not encouraging but I note your comments about the cord, etc and will wait to see how they improve.

You have not addressed the issue of the top clips mentioned in various postings last night, but presume you will pick this up and respond fairly promptly.

Please also address the problem of inadequate velcro to fix valances. The first wood venetians a few years ago had heavy duty velcro pads about every 12/15 inches - now we get very small pieces of sub standard velcro about every 24 inches. I have lost count of the number of times I have been called back to re-fix valances and I'm sure that any small cost saving to Hillarys cannot possibly justify the hassle and time wasting that is being caused to us.

One thing that does concern me in your comments is that you fall back on the DOR rate and DOR codings to prove that things are not as bad as we are making out. This, unfortunately, is a problem throughout the company in that you only have DOR information to go on but, as you will have seen from some postings, the more experienced agents will always try to resolve problems at the time of fit so the faults never get reported in the first place.

This is hopefully one of the major benefits of this forum in that you will get an overview of agent's feelings about product that goes beyond the statistics being presented internally. Please stick with us on this forum, and get other product and line managers involved, because by working together we can really get under the skin of a lot of problems.

[grumperbear]

My experience with the new wooden venetians is that the quality has dropped.

Apart from bits missing,

The wrong size
The ends badly trimmed
The ends badly stained

They are no longer a quality product.

A previous customer was ordering some new blinds and wanted wood. She asked my advice and l gave it to her.
l told her the quality was not good at this present time and advised her to buy something else. She thanked me for my advice and honesty and choose something else.


Sure the order value was less, ( and my commission ) but the product she choose will be of a reasonable standard. And l will not have to go back for another DOR

[Augustus]

Hi Mark,

Firstly - thanks for taking the time to post on the forum and show an interest in what we experience ( ver ybrave of you if you read some posts ! ).

I have had a mixed bag of blinds so far on the news ones.

On the whole I think the wood used is better. I have been concerned with the measured finish of some which is a direct fault in washington.

The top clips look cheap and if possible should not be used as they were not needed before so why now ?

Going slightly off the topic of quality but could you explain why there is such a big difference in price for taped wooden venetians ? Surely it is just a different type of ladder that is used ?

P.

[BlindWizard]

Hi Mark

May I echo it's great to read your posting, I'm sure advisors on reading it will already be feeling more confident that the problems will be resolved. Please let other product managers know how grateful we would be if they also talk to us.

Regarding pricing it does now seem strange that in certain sizes the aliwood is more expensive than the wooden.

regards bw

[gloryboy]

so everything is rosy with wood vens then?

must just be me

[JoY]

Not just you!

An update has just arrivd in my inbox called the "re-launch of the new wood venetians"

They are making a few changes which hopefully will sort out the problems we are ALL having. ;D

Good news.....

__________________________________________

PS I only got a paper commission statement this week. Perhaps at the end of the month we don't get one emailed as well.

[gloryboy]

yup got the same weekly email, just repeats the same old same old that mark trotted out on the dvd and earlier in the thread.

interested in knowing who has had an increase of 75% in wood sales!

i stand by my previous post that the quality of the wood has improved but costs (and therefore quality) have been sacrificed elsewhere.

most customers will probably be none the wiser as they will have nothing to compare to, we are probably hyper critical as very aware of changes.

ps. i like the idea of the clips as always had a problem with 35mm wood top slats. they are cheap and all need refitting though!

[niceday4selinblind]

Hi Mark

I think gloryboy is right
generally the customer won't notice
our preceived quality issues
missing brackets is my main problem
and why do I get holes in bottom rail
when I am not selecting bottom rail
fixings
Hillarys use to produce a dor sheet that the agents filled in
detailing order number type of blind and of course details of any problems
with the order even if had been fixed at time of fir by agent
this type of feed back would surely be of great use to hillarys and you

[farmer]

Take my advice, everybody, raise a d.o.r on everything. Even if its just a bloody screw thats missing.

Hillarys will quote the contract if we do owt wrong. What does it sat about us opening the box and having a perfect blind to fit.

My f.s.m says i am the only one to complain, but why is it that i mend 2 dozen, and d.o.r 2 dozen every month.

The current wood venetians are absolute garbage.

How can i sell them, when the last quote i left, for 1800 quids worth, was beaten by quality and not price. The customer paid 125quid more for a better quality blind. How do I get around that One HILLARYS..

We are no longer the best, when will you realise that............................................................

[Augustus]

Farmer, if your fsm is telling you are the only one to complain then please direct or simply quote to them the posts on this site.

This is where it really comes into it's own !

No longer can we be fobbed off as we know some problems are much wider spread.

Mark Lucas has made a very positive post regarding this and even my own fsm had to admit to problems with the wooden venetians ( he was very quick to preach to me that all's well again now tho ! ) .

I really do feel that the wooden venetian problems will go away and we can get back to selling them with confedence.


In the meantime- stick with it buddy Xmas is coming


P.

[phugly]

On the question of quality v price, I had a customer approx 4-5 years ago who had me out to quote on blinds for her conservatory. I was the third salesman she had had. After I had measured and given her a price, she commented that she would buy from me even though the price was the highest she had been given simply because of the way she had observed me measuring and that on that factor alone had every confidence that the blinds would be perfect. The other salesmen had, apparantley just put the tape up quickly and jotted down figures. These days, however, things seem to have swung around to the other end of the spectrum and most of my customers are more concerned with price rather than quality, even though I try to maintain the same standards.

[grumperbear]

Latest update says that from the feedback they are sorting out the problems.
No mention of the quality improving.


Every wooden venetian that l have ordered recently has had to be DOR'd.